Naming Whiteness, Acknowledging Race: A Contextual Examination of Racial Identity Development Among White Youth

• In Event: Youths' Perception of Racial Identity and Social Inequities in School

Abstract

How white youth acknowledge and engage with racial inequity in U.S. society has implications at the individual and societal levels. Yet, little developmental scholarship has investigated this process. In this conceptual paper, we contextualize the relative dearth of white racial identity development research by examining perspectives on race, whiteness, and racism. We link this discussion to ethnic-racial identity research across groups before focusing on the study of white identity specifically, drawing on Janet Helms’s White Racial Identity Development model and our own empirical research. It is in the effort of moving towards a socio-politically relevant and social justice oriented developmental science that we call for a critical, contextualized study of racial identity development among white youth.

Authors

• Ursula Moffitt, Northwestern University

• Onnie Rogers, Northwestern University